India expanding trade ties through FTAs, in dialogue with United States: Piyush Goyal

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said India is expanding trade ties across the globe through Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and is in dialogue with the United States for a bilateral trade agreement.

The FTAs are already concluded with Mauritius, Australia (first tranche), the EFTA block, the UK, and UAE, while talks are ongoing with the European Union, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, Australia (second tranche), and Oman.

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While talking to the speakers on the sidelines of CII’s 20th Global Sustainability Summit in New Delhi, Goyal said, “We have reached a very advanced stage in our FTA with the European Union.”

“In terms of the Eurasian FTA, we are finalising the terms of reference. Now we’ll set up the next step and dates and start discussing,” he said.

He said that the Commerce Secretary, as we speak, is in a meeting in Brussels with his counterpart, the DG of the EU. Their team is coming down later this week and will be in active negotiation with us. Minister trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic (European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security) is coming down on the 12th of this month and we are making very active and significant progress.

The FTA negotiations between the two sides are expected to conclude in 2025. India last month said the two sides engaged in a forward-looking and substantive dialogue to address global trade challenges and reaffirm their shared resolve to conclude the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2025.

Remarking on the role played by India for the cause of the environment, Minister Goyal noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had played a decisive role in making COP21 a success.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a very important role in making COP21 a success. Without his active participation, without him weighing in with the developed nations to contribute to the sustainability efforts of the less-developed countries, probably COP21 could not have come to fusion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had got the whole global south together, that this should be a collective responsibility of every country in the world,” he said.

He emphasised that India continues to remain firmly committed to its sustainability goals, upscaling renewable energy targets five-fold since 2014 and successfully creating a national interconnected grid under the principle of “One Nation, One Grid.”

The Minister further noted that India is achieving renewable energy goals well ahead of schedule, with 50% renewable energy capacity already installed. He highlighted that India aims to reach 500 GW by 2030, powered by Make in India products, self-reliant manufacturing and rapid innovation. He pointed out that renewable power is now available in India at globally unmatched prices, around Rs. 4.60 to Rs. 5.00 per kWh for 24-hour clean energy supply.

He further added that there was no contradiction in simultaneously pursuing coal and renewables, and that transparent bidding processes reduced the price of solar power from Rs 7–8 to Rs 2.41.